HiroyukiKachi

The dollar surged against so-called commodity currencies, including the Russian ruble and the Canadian dollar, as a renewed rout in oil prices hobbled currencies of countries that depend heavily on petroleum exports.

“We’re getting a big drop in oil attributable to the rise in inventories and that is spilling over into commodity currencies,” said Matt Weller senior technical analyst at Forex.com.

On Wednesday afternoon the ruble
USDRUB, +0.0970%
traded at 73.52 to the dollar, up 1.7%, from 72.26 late Tuesday afternoon in New York, its lowest close all time, according to FactSet data, which dates back to March 1993.

Meanwhile, the U.S. currency bought 1.3888 Canadian dollars
USDCAD, -0.0472%
up 0.3%.

The greenback edged mostly higher against non-commodity currencies, trading in a narrow range against most of its major rivals in seasonally light trading volume.

“The dollar is generally down so far this month and I think [the strength in the buck] we are seeing today is end-of-week, end-of-month, end-of-year rebalancing as we head into 2016,” Weller added.

The ICE Dollar Index
DXY, -0.01%
a measure of the dollar against a basket of major currencies, was up 0.1% at 98.225. The index has advanced 8.9%,so far this year.

The U.S. currency was slightly weaker against the euro
EURUSD, -0.0977%
which was at $1.0933 late Wednesday in New York compared with $1.0921 Tuesday. The dollar has climbed nearly 11% against the euro, according to Dow Jones data.

The greenback
USDJPY, -0.34%
showed gains against the yen and was at ¥120.52 late Wednesday in New York, compared with ¥120.45 Tuesday. So far, the dollar is up 0.7% against the yen, according to Dow Jones data.

Given its resilient ability to stay above the ¥120, “the dollar’s strength has started to show itself,” said Marito Ueda, director of FX Prime byGMO.

There remains a chance that the dollar would fall below the ¥120 threshold due to tumbling oil prices or emerging-market turbulence. “If the dollar falls below the ¥120-line, the pace of decline would be fast,” Ueda said.

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